Patricia Cleveland initially attained success in the 1960s and 1970s and was one of the first African-American models within the fashion industry to achieve prominence as both a runway and print modeL.

Despite her early success, Cleveland grew disillusioned with America and what she perceived to be its racist attitudes towards black models.She relocated to Paris in 1970,
vowing never to return to the United States until a black model appeared on the American cover of Vogue. Cleveland
returned to the U.S. in 1974 to continue her successful modeling career after Beverly Johnson became the first black model to appear on the cover of American Vogue in August 1974.